Most office tenants experience the same sequence: months of energy go into finding the space and negotiating the lease, the ink dries, and then someone asks who is designing the build-out. That second half is where move-in dates are won or lost. This guide walks through the whole path, for tenants planning their first office and for landlords preparing suites for market.
First, decode what the landlord is actually giving you
| Delivery condition | What it usually means | What you still pay for |
|---|---|---|
| Shell (cold shell) | Bare structure: slab, exterior walls, roof. Often no HVAC, minimal power, no ceilings or plumbing in the suite | Essentially everything inside the walls |
| Warm shell | Shell plus basic HVAC, electrical service, restrooms, and sometimes a ceiling grid | Layout, finishes, lighting, power distribution, any plumbing beyond the core |
| Second generation (2nd gen) | A previous tenant's build-out stays in place | Demolition of what does not work, plus everything new |
| Turnkey | Landlord builds to an agreed plan before you move in | Scope beyond the agreed plan, and usually some of it through the rent |
The single most expensive misunderstanding in office TI is assuming a warm shell includes things it does not. Before you sign, have the delivery condition exhibit reviewed against your intended layout. A walkthrough with a designer at the lease stage costs little and routinely saves five figures in surprises.
What office build-outs cost in the Bay Area
Consistent with the ranges we publish for tenant improvement work generally: light-touch office work, meaning paint, flooring, lighting, and minor layout changes, typically runs $50 to $100 per square foot. A mid-range build-out with a new layout, some mechanical and electrical work, a kitchenette, and conference rooms generally lands between $100 and $200 per square foot. Full gut renovations with new HVAC distribution, significant glazing, or specialized spaces can exceed $250 per square foot. On a 3,000 square foot suite, that is the difference between roughly $150K and $750K, which is why scope discipline matters more than any other budget decision.
Your TI allowance offsets this. The allowance is the dollar amount the landlord contributes, negotiated in the lease and usually expressed per square foot. Anything beyond it is your money. Good design earns its fee here: prioritizing the improvements that matter for your team, reusing second generation elements that still work, and producing documentation clear enough that contractors bid it tight instead of padding for ambiguity.
The permits office work actually triggers
Office TI is usually the gentlest permit path in commercial work: no health department, no grease exhaust, and in many cities a straightforward building permit review. But three thresholds catch people. First, almost any wall, electrical, mechanical, or plumbing change needs a permit, even when the work feels minor. Second, renovation triggers accessibility upgrades: California applies a valuation based threshold, commonly summarized as the 20 percent rule, that pulls path of travel, restrooms, and signage into scope. Third, Title 24 applies to lighting and mechanical alterations, so an office relamp or new HVAC zoning carries energy compliance documentation. In San Francisco, straightforward office TI scopes can qualify for over the counter review, which compresses the timeline dramatically; our OTC guide covers what qualifies.
The timeline from signed lease to move-in
For a cosmetic scope, design and permitting can run four to six weeks, with construction following per contractor availability. A full office build-out typically takes three to six months from design kickoff through permit approval, before construction duration. The schedule killers are predictable: starting design after the lease instead of during negotiation, discovering the delivery condition late, and submitting incomplete drawings that bounce through extra review cycles. Complete, coordinated documents are the cheapest schedule insurance there is.
For landlords: spec suites and repositioning
The same work runs in reverse for building owners. In a soft office market, suites in move-in condition lease faster than raw space, which is why owners invest in spec suites, meaning speculative build-outs of vacant space, and in test fits that show prospective tenants how a floor plate could work for them. Design services for landlords typically cover test fit studies for marketing, spec suite design and permitting, building standard development so every suite renovation follows a consistent palette, and delivery condition documentation that keeps lease negotiations honest. If you own office space in the Bay Area and are repositioning it, that is work we do.
The bottom line
Office TI rewards early planning more than any other project type we work on. Engage design before the lease is final, confirm the delivery condition in writing, set scope against your allowance deliberately, and submit complete drawings. Do those four things and the Bay Area office build-out process is genuinely manageable. Skip them and the same project costs more and opens later.